
f^ 






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mEEDOIvI OK, 3DESI>OTISI^. 



THE VOICE 



OF 



OUR BROTHER'S BLOOD 

ITS SOURCE AND ITS SUMMONS. 



A. IDISCOTJRSE 



OCCASIONED BY THE SUMNER AND KANSAS OUTRAGES. 
Preached in Newark, June 8th and 15th, 1856. 



BY HENRY C. FISH, 

PASTOK OF THE FIE6T BAPTIST OHUECH. 



NEWARK, N. J., 

DOUGLASS & STAEBUCK, PEINTEKS AND PUBLISHERS, 

123 Market Street. 

185^6. 



J 






Newark, Jxtne 30th, 1856. 
Ebv. and Dear Sir— 

We, the undersigned, take occasion to express to you our very great satisfaction with the 
sentiments expressed in your recent discourse upon tlie existing difficulties that afflict u» 
as a Nation, and the means of their removal. Believing that such views should have the 
widest possible circulation, wc respectfully request a copy of the discourse for publication. 
With sentiments of high esteem and regard, we remain. 

Yours, truly, 
Thbo. p. Howell, S. G. Gould, 

Peter Mead, D. M. Wilson, 

Thomas Lafon, T. V. Johnson, 

William Silvet, William Noeris, 

Z. H. Kitchen, B. C. Miller, 

O. Thayee, Joseph C. Battin, 

J. W. Stout, Jr., D. 0. Runyon. 



Horace J. Poiniek, 
Joseph C. Hornblowkr, 
William Pennington, 
Asa Whitehead, 
David A. Hayes, 
Nehemiah Perry, 
Matthias W. Day, 



To the Rev. H. C. Fish, Newark, N. J. 



to the Honorable Horace J. Poinirr, Mayor of the City of Newark, Ex-Chief Justice Joseph 
C. Hornblowee, Ex-Gov. William Pennington, Asa Whitehead, Esq., David A. 
Hates, Esq., Nehemiah Perky, Esq., and others : 

GENTLEMEN~It affords me pleasure to know that the sentiments of the discourse referred 
to ia your note of yesterday, meet with approval. Although uttered with no expectation 
of publicity beyond the limits of a single congiegation, yet I see no good reason for declining 
to comply with your kind request that they may have a wider circulation. A copy of the 
discourse is therefore placed at your disposal. 
Indulging the hope that your interest in this regard may promote the best of causes, 
I am, with sincere respect. 

Yours, &G., 

HENRY C. FISH. 
Newark, July 1st, 1856. 



THE VOICE OF OUR BROTHER'S BLOOD. 



" The voice of thy broiher^s blood crieth tmto me from the ground." 
— Gkn. 4 : 10. 

We have come up hither to meditate upon grave coucerus. We 
have come out of love to our country's interests. There is commo- 
tion in the land. There is violence and blood. A brother has been 
stricken down. The blow was not a private injury. It was a public 
wrong. It smote the body of this great Commonwealth. It smote 
it at a vital point. There is no other point so vital. The Senate 
Chamber is the inner sanctuary of our liberties. It is the place 
where the weightiest affairs of the Republic are to be seriously, 
wisely, dispassionately, and fearlessly debated, and considered, and 
decided. Rome lost her liberties by suffering encroachment on the 
Senate ; and had not the revolution restored to England the equi- 
librium of her government, she, too, had lost hers from the same 
cause. Infringe upon the! freedom and integrity of the Senate, 
and you have smitten the heart of these Sovereign States. The 
blow, then, that fell our brother, was, intentionally or otherwsie, a 
blow at the most sacred interests of this whole nation. 

Nor was it from a sudden outburst of passion. It was cool, cal- 
culated, deliberate :— more than this, it was the result of a malicious 
combination. The colleague of the wounded man has termed it an 
assmdi. This were a sufficient wrong ; but there is the best reason 
for believing that the act was rather a conspiracy than an assault. 
Nor is it by any means certain that it was not murderous in its de- 
sign, as, in fact, it may yet prove to have been in execution. What 
is worse than all, the outrage is espoused by most of those in sym- 
pathy with the cowardly assassin who committed it. By some it is 
dignified with the name of patriotism. Others term it J2tst, noble, 
brave, heroic. Testimonials are presented to the " chivalrous " Rep- 
sentative, for his " well-directed " services ; and his constituents are 
called together cordially to endorse, by a series of resolutions, the 
conduct of their " gallant countryman ;" while a leading Southern 
journal declares the act " good in conception, better in execution. 



and best of all in consequence ;" and concludes by saying, " We 
trust other gentlemen will follow the example, that so a curb may be 
imposed upon the truculence and audacity of abolition speakers. If 
need be, let us have a caning or cowhiding every day. If the worse 
come to the worse, so much the sooner so much the better." 

In view of such facts, who can doubt that this barbarous attack 
upon a Northern Senator is but the inauguration of the code of blood, 
and of the reign of briitc force ? Indeed, it was before this inaugu- 
rated. For months past it has reigned at the Capitol. In December 
last, the editor of the Evening Star was assaulted and beaten in the 
lobby of the House, by a Representative from Virginia. Then the 
editor of a New York journal was assailed with blows in the grounds 
of the Capitol, by a member from Arkansas. Then another hot- 
blood from the South shot down and killed an Irish waiter at a 
hotel. And now, a gentleman, noted for his lettered acquirements 
and Senatorial dignity and propriety, is knocked down senseless upon 
the very floor of the Senate Chamber, and in his own chair, for 
nothing save the legitimate discharge of his sworn obligations. 

All this is significant. Freedom of speech is to be suppressed. 
Every one knows that it is now suppressed to a great extent in the 
South. The same is almost equally true at Washington. It is becom- 
ing unsafe there to utter a word against the '' peculiar institution." 
Threats and abuses have proved unavailing, and henceforth the 
friends of freedom and humanity are to be met with pistols and dirks, 
and bludgeons. To use the words of a journal, already referred to, 
(the Richmond ETiquirer,) the "pack of curs'' must "be lashM into 
submission." " Let them once understand, that for every vile word 
spoken against the South, they will sufler so many stripes, and they 
will soon learn to behave themselves like decent dogs /" And this is 
the language — not of Austria or Rome — but of free America! Alas ! 
where is our freedom, when free men cannot speak — no, not even 
within those walls once consecrated, in the eyes of envious nations, 
to the cause of Freedom, but now, most sad to tell, desecrated by 
freemen's blood ! 

But the Capitol is not the only scene of violence and blood. 
Just yonder, midway between Virginia and California, and Min- 
nesota and Texas, — and hence almost in the exact natural center of 
the United States — do I witness scenes at which the heart sickens, 
and every feeling of humanity revolts. That beautiful land, with an 
unused soil of surpassing richness, and a well-tempered climate, in- 
viting the invalid and giving strength to the strong— ^a land every 



way to be desired — is the scene of desolation, and cruelty, and death. 
All over those broad green prairies, roam unhung murderers, with 
hands and lips red with blood, and breathing forth against unoffend- 
ing victims, fire and slaughter. Now they trample down the fields 
seeded with grain ; now they kill the domestic animals of free-State 
men, which come in their way ; now they burn their hay-ricks and 
steal or destroy the implements of husbandry ; now they seize a 
preacher of the gospel, and tie him to a log and throw him into the 
river ; now they shoot a man at work in his field ; now they break 
open the doors of quiet habitations, commit barbarities upon the 
women and children, and steal and devour with the zest of infuriated 
fiends. And now they seek some provocation as a cover for seizing 
upon a free-State settlement, setting fire to its houses, blowing up its 
public buildings, casting its printing presses into the streams, and 
expelling, with armed force, those inoffensive citizens whose bones 
are not left in the ashes of the smouldering ruins. And now they seize 
upon every friend of freedom — even those with Congressional au- 
thority — and some they imprison, and some they cut with knives and 
hatchets, and some they brutally kill. 

Is the Lord unmindful of all these things ? I tell you nay ! His 
ear is open to the cry of the oppressed. There is a voice in the 
blood of those who suffer unrighteously. That of Abel, in our text, 
reached the ear of the Eternal. The moist and reddened ground 
uttered its mute accents, and called for vengeance upon the offender. 
So is there a voice in the blood that now stains the halls of our Le- 
gislation, and fattens the soil of our western prairies. God hears 
it ; man hears it ; and we have come together to ponder it well. 

I ask two things : why the shedding of this blood ; and to tohat 
it calls us. 

L The Sourck. 

And here, as well as throughout this discourse, I shall speak freely 
and plainly. I belong to no party, or society ; I speak for no party ; 
and I have no personal ends to gain. I speak as the friend of hu- 
manity. I speak from the stand-point of gospel truth. I speak to 
protect and advance the interests or my country, with all her sacred 
institutions, and by so doing promote the welfare of a fallen world. 

What, then, I again ask, is the source of all these existing diffi- 
culties ? It is easily told ; and I will open the whole matter in few 
words. It is the resurrection of the Slave Poioer, and the indifference, 
or subserviency of the people of the Free States to that poicer. 

There was a time when the slave interests of this country were 



not widely operative. Viewed ia tlie light of an inherited institu. 
tion, in itself an evil, but not easily disposed of, the men of even one 
generation ago, said and cared but comparatively little as to its per- 
petuity or extension. 

About the time indicated, however, that is about the year 1820, 
the Slave Power experienced a wonderful resurrection. To borrow a 
figure, it was at the Ithuriel touch of the Missouri discussion (then 
before Congress,) that slavery started up, portentous and swollen 
with rage, and loud with threats and assumptions. Some attribute 
this resuscitation to the excesses of Northern abolitionists. I would 
be far from endorsing all that has been said and done at the North 
against slavery ; but to attribute to this the revival of the Slave 
Power were simply idle and ridiculous. It is often asserted, but is too 
absurd to be disproved. It was the heat engendered in the discus- 
sion as to whether Missouri should be admitted as a slave State, 
that sent new life into the slave system. Many of the great states- 
men of that day believed that the Constitution did not recognize 
slavery ; or, at the most, viewed it as a local institution, to be pro- 
tected where it was planted, but not to be extended beyond existing 
limits. It was decided, however, as a final compromise, that Mis- 
souri should be admitted, but that slavery should be prohibited in 
all the remaining territory west of the Mississippi, and north of 36 
degrees and 30 minutes, leaving entirely untouched by the arrange- 
ment all lauds south of this line, or subsequently to be acquired. 
This solemn covenant, or compact, was called a compromise, and was 
adopted at the urgent solicitations of slaveholders and those in their 
interests, as the condition of admitting the new State into the Union . 
Without this condition, that State would not have been admitted. 
And its adoption was looked upon by the upholders of slavery, to 
use the words of a distinguished South Carolinian, written on the 
night of the passage of the Compromise, as " a great triumph ;" 
while multitudes at the north were humbled, and grieved, and 
afflicted. 

But mark the course of opinions and events. Since that time, the 
sentiment of the South, as regards slavery, has undergone a wonder- 
ful revolution. Within a few years, it has been held up by its de- 
fenders, as a blessing instead of a curse ; a system founded in the 
nature of things, elevating in its tendency, and absolutely indispen- 
sable as an American institution. What the fathers regarded as an 
evil to be endured for a time, the sons are regarding as a positive 
good, to be nurtured and perpetuated. And to perpetuate it, and 



render it profitable, like every thing else, it must have scope and 
control. The people may cai*e little for its extension, but the politi- 
cians will not hold the balance of power and enjoy national patronage 
and preferment without it. " If the newly acquired territory be 
carved up into free States, the north, and not the south, will elect the 
governmental officers, and have everything their own way." 

Thus reasoned those whose trade was politics, or whose pecu- 
niary interest, and honor, and popularity were identified with the 
barbarous system in question. And reasoning thus, every energy 
has of late been bent in that direction. The odious Fugitive Slave 
Bill was an outgrowth of this new life in the Slave Power. So was 
the gradual instalment in places of trust and power, of men in sym- 
pathy with this interest, until it is not without reason apprehended, 
that the highest tribunal in the land could not be brought to give a 
decision unfavorable to the slave interest. Nay, in view of a possi- 
ble, (perhaps ^roiaJ/e,) decision of the Supreme Court, to the eifect 
that slaves may be held, by authority of the Constitution, while 
being transported through the free States, (and, of course, if held 
by its authority in free States one honr, they may be one year, or any 
term of years,) in view, I say, of the possibility of such a decision, 
men at the South are making their boast that they will yet call the 
roll of their bondmen on Bunker Hill itself ! 

But the most astonishing and humiliating illustration of the revival 
of the Slave Power, is found inthe famous Kansas-Nebraska Act. By 
this Act, the solemn covenant of compromise, above referred to, was 
violated and rescinded. It was a deep plot, laid in the guile and 
craft of the devil himself, steeped and concocted in perjury, hypocrisy 
and black injustice, and basely sprung upon the people, through the 
treacherousness of their leaders, before they had the opportunity to 
express their will, or put forth their legitimate power. Thus was the 
old landmark of Freedom overturned, and the new territory opened 
to the introduction of the monster slavery. 

Still, the question was professedly to be left to the settlers of the 
new territory, whether slavery should or should not exist within its 
limits. But observe the results. First of all, the Governor, Secre- 
tary, Chief Justice, other Justices and the Attorney or Marshal, were 
not elected by the people of the territory, but sent from Washington, 
and were supposed to be in the interest of the dominant party, and 
consequently to shape everything in that direction. Next, the first 
election of a delegate to Congress was to take place. Let the tale be 
told in a single sentence. Hordes of reckless invaders crossed the line. 



10 

and came iuto Kansas in the guise of voters, and stole away the right of 
the people to decide the choice for themselves. Next, the Territorial 
Legislature was to be elected ; when an armed multitude, with tents 
and organized companies, and munitions, and beating drums, and 
streaming flags, entered the territory, and everywhere exercised the 
complete control of the election, and thus imposed upon the people 
a Legislature repulsive to their will. Again, in October last, at the 
choice of a member for Congress, the same invasion, and the same 
forced election are well known matters of history. And a like ex- 
ternal force was employed at the adoption of the Constitution, ia 
December last. 

The recent sacking of the town of Lawrence, and the unbounded 
control of armed desperadoes, complete the last scene in this history 
of usurpation and crime yet opened to our view. 

Thus has the Slave Interest, impelled by an unwonted lust for exten- 
sion and control, been grasping within its deadly embraces, the places 
of honor and trust, and the fair portions of the land, once dedicated 
to Justice, and Freedom, and Righteousness. 

And here lies the secret of our present National afflictions. The 
champions of oppression have become bold and rampant. They will 
not brook restraint. Reckless as to the means, they are bound to 
compass, somehow, their ambitious ends. If fair means will not an- 
swer, foul means must. And woe to him who places a straw in their 
way ! If a man be found in Kansas, with the taint of northern 
principles, he must be got rid of somehow — either by intimidation, 
or abuse, or by the bowie knife and revolver. If witnesses are 
brought before a Commission, to testify to unfair proceedings, they 
must be arrested for high treason and ordered to leave the territory, 
or locked up in prison. And if a man, even at Washington, dare to 
express, with franicness, his views of the injustice of these pro- 
ceedings, he must be cudgeled into silence ! 

But I said the source of this violence and bloodshed was the re- 
surrection of the Slave Power, and tJie indifference or subserviency of 
northern men to this power . 

I wish to utter a few words on this last point — the conduct of 
men at the North. The South is not wholly responsible for the 
calamities under review. A large share of the responsibility rests 
on the people of these free States. To the eternal disgrace of these 
States, it must be said, that the ostensible originator of the Bill re- 
pealing the Missouri Compromise, was a man from a free State ! 
, And it is a fact not less humiliating, that the Chief Executive, 



11 

who has so ingloriously figured as a williag tool in these transactions, 
was reared on the free hills of New England ! I would not speak 
evil of the ruler of the people, although I discard the sentiment 
that the voice of the ruler is necessarily the voice of God; and insist 
!that his conduct, like all other officials, should be closely scrutinized, 
and if need be condemned. A ruler is entitled to my respect just so 
far as he rules righteously, and not one whit farther. But as respects 
the line of conduxi pursued by the National Executive, I hold it 
!up to universal detestation. Quick to scent the savor of rebel- 
lion at the north, wherever the good people resisted the at- 
tempts of slave hunters to catch the poor fugitives who claimed their 
God-given rights — quick to invent strange means whereby to secure 
to a southern slaveholder an item of his alleged property, caught in 
the streets of Boston, and to say to the U. S. Attorney at Boston, 
, *' Incur any expense deemed necessary to insure the execution of the 
law," he can see an honored Senator, from that same city, knocked 
■down and well nigh killed, in defiance of God's laws and man's, and 
neither utter one word of disfavor, nor perform the part of a friend 
by calling to see whether he be dead or alive ! If a slave breeder 
chance to require it, thousands of dollars of the public funds are 
•expended in bringing back an escaped mulatto ; but when, in one of 
the provinces placed under his protection, hundreds of women and 
children are sent shrieking from their homes — when white men, sim- 
ply for their free principles, are waylaid, and shot down, and hunted 
like the partridge on the mountain — when the ballot-box is polluted 
and rifled, and the most sacred right of a free citizen — his elective 
franchise — is set at defiance, then he folds his hands, and looks coolly 
on, and deems he has no power to redress the wrongs ! 

Nay, what is infinitely worse, he absolutely turns oppressor himself, 
by enforcing the doings of a legislature which every man knows to 
have been a sham and a farce. The President himself knows it and 
admits it, though reluctantly, in declaring the creative transactions 
to have been "illegal and reprehensible !" And yet the ads of this 
so-called legislature, he is now supporting and enforcing by United 
States troops ; and by border ruffians scooped together, and placed 
under command, and paid out of the public treasury ! Alas ! how 
do ambition and lust for power, and love of honor, blunt the moral 
sense and lead one to repudiate his humanity, and become the mere 
paw of mousing demagogues and fawning sycophants ! 

And I would that the President alone were liable to this impu- 
tation. The truth is, there are white slaves as well as black, in 



12 

the District of Columbia, aye, and at the North, too. There are 
there and here, "Northern men with Southern principles," who would 
not say their souls were their own, if it were to offend slaveholders, 
or lose caste with the powers that be. 

It is enough to make the blood of a true patriot tingle to his fin- 
gers' ends, to behold the indifference and subserviency of even liberty- 
loving men to the aggressions of the Slave Power. Some are so 
wedded to party interests as to have disfranchised themselves, and 
lost every particle of their political iudependence. But more are 
timid and time-serving from their social and business relations. They 
have friends and patrons in the southern States. The profits of their 
trade are drawn from that direction. To speak a word against slave 
propagandism might offend "a customer." To be found in the ranks 
of "Northern abolitionists," or to be known as advocating free sen- 
timents, or acting in their support, might seriously affect their income ! 
And hence, if they do not actually join in the cry, " Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians," they are sure to be found advising extreme cau- 
tion; or secretly whispering, "This our craft is in danger , and ye 
know that by this craft ice have our tcealth .'"* 

Why, therefore, should not oppressors become proud and insolent, 
when even the Sons of the Pilgrims have either sold themselves to 
their interests, or have lost the moral courage to sustain free princi- 
ples, or speak forth boldly and openly in their support ? I ask, is it 
strange that usurpation and violence predominate, and their victims 
send up the cry for redress into the ear of the Almighty ? 

Thus much as to the Source. 

II. Let us now attend to the Summons. 

1. And first, the voice of our brother's blood calls to the exercise of 
sympathy and brotherly concern. We may not say, ''Am I my brother's 
keeper ?'' We are linked together, bone of the same bone, and flesh 
of the same flesh — the members of one common family. We are to 
weep with those that weep, and when one of our fellows suffers, we 
ought ourselves to feel afflicted ; thus bearing each other's burdens, 
and so fulfilling the law. When, therefore, the lovers of freedom in 
the halls of Congress, or in a distant territory, are shedding their 
blood in defence of the very liberties for which our fathers fought, 
and bled, and died, shall we deny them the hand of affection and 
the warm sympathies of our hearts ? Let us make their case our 
own. If you were the victim of assassination, now suffering from 

* How striking a verification of the words of John Kandolph, uttered manyfyears ago : — 
" We govern you ly your white slaves."' 



13 

-cruel wounds, or if your dearest rights, and your property, and your 
families, were outraged by hordes of drunken and maddened ruffians, 
would not indifference seem to you the veriest cruelty ? It is well 
that the noble champion of humanity at Washington is receiving ex- 
pressions of condolence and kindly encouragement. It were better 
if there were one general effort, on the part of the inhabitants of 
every town and village, to send to our suffering brethren in Kansas, 
the substantial proofs of our commisseration, and the words of sym- 
pathy and cheer, which they so much require. 

2. The sad events to which I refer, summon us to imited and ear- 
nest prayer. These are not the only threatening aspects upon our 
•social and political horizon. The clouds lower and thicken in every 
direction. In one way or another, our government is on unpleasant 
terms with half the powers of Europe. Men at the South are mad 
upon their idols, and seem determined to install them, not only in 
our National Temples, but in the very homes of free men who love 
liberty better than life. And in this nefarious movement, they have 
iihe aid and sympathy of the Chief Executive, and of Congressmen 
>not a few. Add to this the civil war now actually raging, with its 
horrid train of fire and slaughter, in our frontier settlements, and the 
lunrebuked reign of daring violence at the Capitol, and one cannot 
but fear that God Almighty, in His just indignation for the wrongs 
and sins of this people, so long committed, is about to allow us to be 
precipitated into one general ruin ; and to witness the vision of the 
^prophet, '• The battle of the warrior, with confused noise, and gar- 
ments rolled in blood, and burning, and fuel of fire !" This seems 
plain, that we are either going fast to destruction, or that God is 
preparing some strange deliverance that shall glorify His providence 
and His great name. 

Is not s^ich a time a time for prayer ? We have placed dependence in 
men and have been deceived. We have looked everywhere for deliv- 
erance and it has not come. Now let Israel say, " Our help is in the 
Lord God Almighty, that made the heavens and the earth !'' Now let 
the saints of the Most High, look iLuto the hills whence cometh their salva- 
tion ! Let the ministers in the courts of the liord's house ; let the 
parents at the family altar, and the people in their social gatherings, 
and the pious ones in the retirement of their closets — let the young 
and the old, the rich and the poor, the fathers and the mothers, the 
sons and the daughters — pour out their supplications before God, that 
He would thwart the plans of the oppressors, and open up a way of 
escape through the Red Sea of difficulty that now lies before us ! 



14 

3. Finally, the voice of our brother's blood summons us to action.. 
Prayer and action go together. The Almighty never does that for 
ns which we may do for ourselves. Words alone, and prayer alone, 
when we are able to ad, are mere mockery. As faith without works 
is dead, so is prayer. " Heaven helps those who help themselves." 

There should be action, then. And that action should have a dis- 
tinct and definite direction. It should aim to compass at least three 
things. 

1. TJic extinction of a rising despotism. 

Absolute power, unlimited by men, or constitution, or laws, is des- 
potism. We have it not inform, but it is fearfully obtaining in fact.. 
New and strange constructions, to suit political purposes, are put by 
our rulers upon the laws of the Commonwealth, and every year there- 
is less and less regard for the popular opinion, so long as partizan 
ends are secured. The government is fast passing out of the hands 
of the people, into the hands of officials. Men put in office to do- 
the public will — the servants of the free people who choose them — are 
coming to think that the seat of power is in them, and not in the 
people ; that they are to govern, and the people are to he governed ; 
that the will of their constituents is nothing, so long as they have 
the power to do their oion will ; and hence, as often as it serves their- 
purpose, they fearlessly override the known wishes of the majority 
of the sovereign people. 

The tendency of any form of government is either to anarchy, where- 
there is no law, or to an oligarchy, where the many are ruled by the 
few. The Republican government — the type which our fathers adopted 
— aims to secure the just medium between the two extremes of an- 
archy and despotism. But there is no surer way to induce anarchy 
than by encroaching on the rights of the people, and enacting laws 
known to he contrary to their will. No free people will long endure 
this. Now, of this nature, I hesitate not to say, was the Fugitive 
Slave Bill ; and, more particularly, the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The 
majority of the people of the United States were opposed to these 
acts. Had they not been adopted as they were — had the people had' 
an opportunity to control the matter, by their popular elections — 
neither of those acts would have been adopted. As it was, they 
were precipitated upon the people, and that too in known violation' 
of the prevailing sentiment. And they were but the cropping forth 
of an undergrowth of tyranny and oppression, which threatens the 
very existence of our glorious Union. The hydra-headed monster — 
Slavery — in the person of its champions and abettors, is setting at- 



15 

defiance all law and order, and the public sentiment of the North, 
and introducing a reign of despotism and brute violence, almost 
without a parallel among civilized nations. 

If any one doubt it, let him look at still other indications. Let 
bim look at the attacks now made upon free speech. Freedom of 
speech is the very breath of a Republic. It is absolutely essential to 
liberty. When public doings are freely criticised by the press, and 
the pulpit, and the individual, there is little danger of the fruits of 
error. Only let the battle of Thought go on, and truth and right 
are sure to prevail. But when any public man, or any set of ruen, 
claim immunity from the closest scrutiny, and the freest possible criti- 
cism, and, if need be, censure ; when free speech is killed to save 
public men, then, in the language of Milton, there is "a kind of mas- 
sacre, whereof the extinction ends not in the slaying of an elemental 
life, but strikes ai the etherial and fifth essence, the breath of reason 
itself, slaying an immortality rather than a life." As sings the Greek 
poet, Euripides : 

This is true liberty, when freeborn men, 
Having to advise the public, may speak free ; 
"Which he who can and will, deserves high praise ; 
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace : 
What can be juster in a State than this? 

But are we in the enjoyment of this right ? — we, the free people 
of this Republic. I blush to tell the truth ! Every one knows, that 
while a man from the South may come North and speak with perfect 
freeJom, of any one of our institutions, a man travelling at the 
South, or even residing there, and speaking freely against slavery, 
would be not less liable to lose his life than would a sojourner in Rome, 
if he made bold to traduce the Pope ; or a peasant in France or Rus- 
sia if he dared to utter a word against the Emperor or the Czar. 

The events of the past few months show how much freedom of 
speech there is on the common ground of the National Capitol. The 
outrage on Sumner was in open defiance of the Constitution itself. 
That instrument, wisely guarding the right of free speech in Con- 
gress, declares that " For any speech or debate in either House, they 
(the members,) shall not be called in question in any other place." 
Yet here is an instance of its open violation, (and by no means the 
first,) and its general sanction at the South makes it representative 
and fearfully significant. What must be the state of things, when 
for the expression of their opinions, members of Congress must carry 
deadly weapons as a means of defending life ! And then behold the 
so-called " laws" adopted by the pretended legislature of Kansas, 



16 

and now in force in that ill-fated territory. In three sections only, 
there are no less than forty-eight denunciations of the penalty of 
death, by as many changes of language, for interfering with property in 
human flesh ! And any one who denies, either hy spoken or written 
word, " the right of 2)^rsons to hold slaves in this territory,''^ is 
denounced as a felon, and punishable by imprisonment at hard labor 
for a term not less than two years. Even the Press, that object of 
universal dread to tyrants, as well as the tongue, is shackled and 
placed under a keen censorship. Hear the law, and say if it would 
not befit the veriest despot in the old world : 

" Sec, 12. If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert or 
maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this terri- 
tory, or shall introduce into this territory, print, publish, write, cir- 
culate, or cause to be introduced in this territory, written, printed, 
published, or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, 
pamphlet or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons 
to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of 
felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of 
not less than two years." 

Behold, then, our boasted freedom of speech ! Behold the en- 
croachments of the Slave Power, made upon it, in the South, at the 
Capitol, and in the newly opened territory !* 

* It was enactments like this, well termed the " Dance of Death," that called forth, in the 
House of Eepresentatives, those words of true eloquence from Mr. Bingham, of Ohio : 

" Aye, sir, Congress is to abide by this statute which m.alies it a felony for a citizen to utter 
or publish in that Territory 'any iking calculated to induce slaves to escape from the service 
of their m.isters.' Hence it would be felony there to utter the strong words of Algernon Syd- 
ney — 'Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God;' a felony, to say with Jefferson, 'I have 
sworn upon the altar of my God eternal hostility to tyranny in every form over the mind and 
body of man :' a felony to utter there in the hearing of a slave upon American soil, beneath 
the American flag, the words of flame which shook the stormy soul of Henry, 'Give me lib- 
erty, or give me death ; ' a felony to read in the hearing of one of these fettered bondsmen the 
words of the Declaration, 'All men are born free and equal, and endowed by the Creator with 
the inalienable rights of life and liberty ;' a felony to utter those other words, blazing in letters 
of living light on the great written cliaracter of our Nation.il Government, ' We the people of 
the United States, in order to establish justice,' the attribute of God, .and 'to secure liberty,' 
the imperishable right of man, do 'ordain this Constitution ;' a felony to harbor or aid a slave 
escaping from bis thraldom ; a felony to aid freedom in its flight ; a felony to shelter the house- 
less, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, and to help him who is ready to perish ; a felony 
to give to the famishing a cup of water in the name of our Master. Oh, sir, before you hold 
this enactment binding on an American Congress, tear down the biinner of freedom which 
floats above us, for stirring reminiscences linger in its folds, and the stars upon its field of 
azure have gleamed upon the field of ' poised battle,' where the earthquake and the fire led 
the charge, and where American virtue and American valor maintained the unequal conflict 
against the mighty power of British tyranny and oppression. Before you hold tliis enactment 
to be law, burn our immortal Declaration and our free-written Constitution, fetter our free 
press and finally penetrate the human soul, and put out the light of understanding which the 
breath of the Almighty hath kindled !" 



17 

Now, siuce this conditioa of national affairs is either originated or 
sanctioned and sustained by the majority of those who fill the high 
places of the land, I submit that despotism is already installed over tis ! 
I submit that there must be either refor^nation or revolution ! I 
submit that the question as to the oppression of the colored race, has 
grown to the question of the oppression of the free men of the north/ 
The issue before the people now is, not as to whether iiegro slavery 
shall exist, but whether ivhilc slavery shall be endured ! In other 
words, the issue is. Freedom or Despotism ! 

And let the people meet this question ! Full long enough have 
we been listless as to this great issue ! We have remained quiet 
while the chains have been forging for our passive necks ; if we re- 
main indifferent and inactive now, we deserve to wear them ! 

2. As a second thing which present action should aim to compass, 
I mention the arrest of the extension of slave territory. I say the 
arrest of this extension, because its extension is already commenced, 
and out of it springs the present agitation. I thank high Heaven 
that there is yet left enough of virtue and moral courage, and 
Christian principle, to resist this monstrous wrong ! 

It is not of the abolition of slavery in the Southern States that I 
speak. I have purposely avoided the whole of this vexed question. 
I speak only of its extension into newly acquired territories. The 
original policy of this government, as all must concede, was Freedom 
and not Slavery. According to that policy, the question of slavery 
was a question with which the sovereign States choosing to sustain it 
were alone concerned. It was their own institution, with which the 
other States were not to interfere ; but which was, in no sense what- 
ever, a national institution. No provision whatever was made for 
its extension, nor even for its permission, on common territory. It 
was a thing not contemplated, and therefore wholly unprovided for. 
Slavery was sectional and not national. With it the nation, as such, 
had nothing to do. To disturb the original limitations, therefore, 
and attempt to nationalize slavery, is nothing less than breaking up 
the original foundations. Of right, no new slave states ought to 
have been created. Of right, the concessions of the Compromise in 
1820, ought not to have been granted. They were granted solely 
for peace's sake. 

And now to repeal that Compromise, and make the Constitution 
an instrument to carry slavery into free territory and shield it there 
with Executive authority, is a stupendous wrong against the people 
of the free States, and a rank offense before a just and holy God I 



18 

la His own Word was it written, of old, " Ctorsed be he thai 
removeth his neighbor s landmark ;" and all the people were to say, 
" Amen /" Was ever a landmark more sacred than that which set 
bounds to the aggressions of human servitude, and said hitherto 
mayest thou come and no farther? At least let this limitation be 
respected ! Full enough have we already suffered from its un- 
righteous removal ! And I do verily believe that it is but the first 
bitter dregs of that fearful cup which the Almighty will wring out 
unto us, if these aggressions continue ! 

To avert such a calamity, let every man stand to the right, and 
appeal to God against the oppressors ! Let the voice of indignant 
remonstrance and the rally-cry of Freedom resound throughout the 
land ! Let those who stand on Zion's walls set to the mouth the 
trumpet, and summon the people to the recovery of their departing 
liberties ! Let the statesman from the hall of legislation, the jurist 
from his bench of justice, the lawyer from his office, the editor from 
his chair, the mechanic from his shop, and the husbandman from his 
fields, lift up tlie voice of united and earnest demand, and insist that 
not one inch more of the national domain be doomed to the blight 
and curse of human chattelship ! 

3. Tiie remaining point to be gained, as the result of action im- 
peratively demanded, is parity and high moral principle in the men 
who administer our national affairs. With some honorable excep- 
tions, those who have of late held in their hands, so far as men 
may do it, the destinies of this nation, have given sad evidence of the 
want of these qualities. Time was when they were the chief char- 
acteristics of those who shared the people's honors. But in our day, 
politics has become too exclusively the trade of scoundrels. Govern- 
ment, for some time past, has been manufactured by machinery, and 
that machinery has been seized and worked by unscrupulous and 
venal aspirants. The future historian of our country will style this the 
era of demagogueism. This is the day when men of small mental 
caliber, and still smaller moral and virtuous capacities, figure in the 
high places, and from the power of their position are endangering 
the very existence of the Republic. 

Who that looks upon the portraitures of the noble and venerable 
men who composed the first Congress of our country — the flower 
and pride of the land — and compares that group with those who fill 
the halls of Congress now, does not sicken at the disparity, and 
almost pray for the return of those lofty spirits, to shed light upon 
iour councils and lustre upon our age, and to lead us forth from our 
impending calamities ? 



19 

But we need not wish them back. There are men among us not 
unworthy of their honored sires. All that is requisite is that we 
pull down from his position every office-bearer who has proved him- 
self incompetent or recreant to his trust, and place in his stead a man 
who shall fear God and work righteousness. Men should now be 
called forth whose principles are known, and who can be relied upon 
— men who will be statesmen, as distinguished horn politicians ; and 
who, at the behest of stern duty, are willing to stand the fight and 
endure the odium incurred in doing right. These are the men for the 
times. And to aid in calling them forth should be regarded as the 
sacred duty of every lover of his race. 

Let not Christian men, especially, be indifferent to it. The fault, 
after all, lies with the people, who allow unprincipled men to usurp 
the places of trust. Disgusted with prevailing intrigue and corrup- 
tion, good men have refrained from the exercise of their elective 
franchise. This is every way unwise; it is more,\i is sinful in the 
sight of God. I have social and political duties, as well as duties 
strictly religious. It is not less my duty to render unto Csesar the 
things that be Caesar's, than unto God the things that be God's. 
Indeed, social and political duties are religious duties. Can it be 
shown where they do not interlace and intei'lap ? The truth is, re- 
ligion should pervade every department of human life. It is not a 
thing to be put on and worn at certain seasons, and cast off again at 
convenience. It must be carried everywhere. A man should make 
it a matter of conscience to go to the polls : and he should go there 
just as he goes to church, or addresses himself to any duty — for the 
sole purpose of glorifying God. If the political atmosphere has become 
too corrupt for Christians to enter it, then let it be purified. So 
much the more need of the salt of their holy example and influence. 
Who has given authority to sunder religion from politics ? Where 
is the bill of divorcement ? The fruits of such an unnatural dissev- 
erance are already too patent. It is high time that an end be put 
to the producing cause. 

We pray for our country's welfare ; but we are to pray for noth- 
ing which we are not ready to secure or promote, so far as in us lies. 
It is the grossest inconsistency for a man to bow at the altar of 
prayer in his family, and ask for good rulers, and then refuse to do 
his part to secure them. 

And let me say in conclusion, that in the effort to secure the sev- 
eral ends indicated in this discourse, there ought to be an universal 
and harmonious endeavor. 



20- 

I think I have set forth what is the real seat of the existing difi&- 
culties and the only adequate means of their removal. If this be so, 
there can be no question before the people half so momentous as this. 
Shall we have men in power who will carrrj out these principles ! At 
different times, other great questions have claimed pre-eminence. 
There are other questions now before the people ; but I maintain 
that the question of Slave Extension towers immeasurably above 
them all. This is something more than a so-called " political" ques- 
tion. It is interlinked with the most sacred interests of our holy 
religion. Is it nothing to the cause of Christianity whether the 
wide and glorious territory now the matter of dispute, be doomed to 
Slavery or not ? Whether a full and free gospel, for the entire pop- 
ulation, shall, or shall not, be preached in that territory ? Whether 
the type of Christianity and of Christian churches there to be 
planted, be that of the free or of the Slave States ? Is Religion no 
way concerned in all this ? 

And then, again, I ask, if Christianity, the world over, is not in- 
terested in the question of the peace and perpetuity of this Republic ? 
I do firmly believe that the arrest of slave exl ension is essential to 
the well-being of the South, as well as of the North — of the whole 
country/. This the only way of preserving the Union. Unless it be 
arrested, I cannot see how a fatal rupture is to be avoided.* 

He who aims to check the usurpations of the Slave Power, is, 
therefore, the true friend of his country. Much is said of conserva- 
tism. A true conservative every man ought to be. But there is a 
false conservatism which is exceedingly popular, as there is also an 
eliminated gospel which ignores the great doctrines of universal di- 
vine authority and human brotherhood. Indifferent is not conserva- 
tism. Much less is that doctrine worthy of this name, which teaches 
the duty of quiet submission to the rapid encroachments of a rising 

* The following from a distinguished Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
(Judge McLean,) lias appeared since this discourse was delivered : " No intelligent observer 
can fail to see that the tendency of our institutions is now rapidly downward, and all history 
and experience show that no free government, with such tendencies, was ever arrested in its 
declining career, without a revolution, either by a peaceful change of its policy and rulers, or 
by the bloody arbitrament of the sword." 

What is it but the prevailing opinion of the most sober and thoughtful minds? Says Dr. 
Feancis Wayland, late President of Brown University : — " It is the most solemn crisis the 
country has seen since wc became a nation. On the decision of the passing season depend re- 
sults of good or evil for the remotest prosperity. The interests of republican liberty, the 
world over, are in the balance." 

The lion. Josiaii Quincy, Sen., but utters a common sentiment: — "If we do not act now, 
the chance may never again return; and all that will be loft the North will be to tackle in 
with tlie slaves, and drag the carts of slaveholders, only beseeching them to spare the whip 
and make the load as light as possible." 



21 

despotism. Peace does not lie in this direction. Will the free 
men of the North ever submit to have slavery nationalized, 
and liberty, as applied to this glorious land, a by-word among 
the nations ? Ought they to submit ? Who that has a spark 
of the martyr spirit of our forefathers would not shrink from the 
avowal of such a sentiment ? Is that conservatism, then, which 
hushes into silence all outspoken remonstrance, through fear of 
" excitement," and preaches " peace" as a condition of safety ? If 
a band of invaders were burning down your city, would they be the 
true conservatists who should counsel quiet inaction and delay ? 

As long as slave usurpation continues, there can be no peace. 
This line of policy is the direct road to inevitable ruin. Certainty 
not until this generation of men dies out, will slavery be permitted to 
drag her slimy folds over these fair portions of our domain, where 
now Freedom smiles, and beckons the nations to emulate her example 
in the career of moral and physical elevation. 

He, then, who at this moment speaks and acts in behalf of free 
principles, and he alone, is the true conservative. He, alone, is the 
consistent friend of the tohole country. He has at heart, not the good 
of a section or a part of the Union, but aims to keep sound and entire 
the whole hody politic, by restoring the original policy, and removing 
the causes which tend to ai, disastrous rupture. 

In this noble endeavor, I again say, let there be unanimity of 
action. Let not eflfort be lost from misdirection. Let it note be 
aimed to compass the ends here indicated. Other points may be 
met as they shall assume paramount importance. Never was con- 
certed action more imperatively demanded than at this very moment. 
We are, so to speak, compelled to forget minor differences, and strike 
hands together, as did our fathers, in the defence of Freedom. The 
question to be decided is, shall the lovers of liberty now stand in solid 
phalanx for its protection, or shall it be taken captive, and made, 
"with its sightless eyes, to grind in its prison-house forever ?" 

In settling this question, and settling it once for all, party pre- 
dilictions and prejudices ought to sink into oblivion. The Slave 
Power is united ; why should those opposed to its encroachments 
be divided ? A few years, it may be one year — aye, less than 
this — must determine the vast affairs to which I have alluded. The 
boast of a chief leader of the ruffian horde, just borne to us is, " In 
a few months, in my opinion, there will not be an abolitionist left in 
Kansas ; they will be swept with a clean broom. Then the war will 
be carried elsewhere, if war we are to have.^' -A.ye, " then,'^ if need 



22 

be, " the war will be carried elsewhere ! Let it be pondered well ! 

lu this hour of the country's peril, therefore, let the lovers of Free- 
dom stand side by side, and all is gained ; otherwise, there is reason 
for fear that all will be lost. 

! shall it be, when the blood of an unoffending brother is spilt 
in the very palladium of our liberties ; when the Capitol is changed 
into the arena of personal violence ; when law makers are the per- 
petrators of the blackest crimes ; when plantation discipline is being 
brought to bear to transform freemen of the North into white serfs 
of southern nobility ; wkeu upon soil once sacredly devoted to free- 
dom, the blood of peaceable and liberty-loving men is being wickedly 
shed with Executive authority and pretended judicial forms ; when 
a cruel despotism is bent on forcing upon that territory the foulest 
blot and deadliest scourge that fallen humanity ever suffered ; and 
when, under the agitation of this diabolical outrage, the very foun- 
dations of the Republic are heaving and quivering on their pivot, 
and foreign despots, as they look upon its threatened doom, are 
tossing their heads and crying out, Aha ! Aha ! so would we have 
it ! — at such a time — at such a fearful crisis— shall it be that party 
names, and party prejudices, and personal preferences, shall keep 
apart those who ought to grasp each other's hands, and, by God's 
help, hold up the trembling pillars of the National fabric ! 

The Lord turn the heart of each man to his fellow ! The Lord 
make you a unit ! The Lord bring to nought the devices of wicked 
and ambitious men ! The Lord send relief to the wronged and op- 
pressed ! The Lord give us men after his own heart ! The Lord 
save this Commonwealth, and still make it a name and a praise 
throughout the earth ! 




THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHI?. 



The following timely words, condensed from a leading religious 
journal, are appended to fill out the otherwise two blank pages : 

Christians sometimes excuse themselves from going to the polls 
and from taking any active interest in politics, on the plea that a few 
votes more or less cannot materially affect the result of an election, 
and therefore, since they can do no good by voting, they choose to 
avoid the excitements of a political campaign. Let us look at this 
plea. Does the fact that we cannot be sure of accomplishing a great 
and manifest good, lessen our obligation to use all reasonable effort 
for that end ? Shall Christians reason thus, because in a given com- 
munity they chance to be in a minority, or because they are but a 
very small minority of the population of the globe ? The ability 
and the opportunity to act, and not the estimated results of action, 
are the measure of Christian obligation. But the possible results of 
our action may also come in to enhance that obligation. The may 
be often Sfives additional emphasis to the ought. We must obey the 
dictates of conscience, the sense of right, the calls of humanity and 
of Providence, even when we cannot see the promise of immediate 
good : but when to the plain dictates of Conscience, Humanitj', and 
Religion are added, even the possible results of good from our action 
or evil from our inaction, the obligation to " do with our might that 
which our hand findeth to do'' becomes more urgent and impressive. 

Now nothing can be more illusive than this very plea that a single 
vote will accomplish nothing for the good of the country, nothing to 
secure just counsels, nothing to hinder the triumph of deceit and 
oppression, because it is but one. There have been crises memora- 
ble in history, both in the British Parliament and in the early Colo- 
nial legislation in this country, when measures portentous with the 
destiny of nations and of ages hung upon a single vote. And under 
our popular form of government, a single vote is likely at any time 
to determine the election of public officers, or in legislative bodies 
to settle measures of momentous interest to a State or to the Nation. 
Twice, within recent date, was a Governor of the State of Massa- 
chusetts elected by one vote. In one instance a single vote gave 
him a majority in the popular election. In the other he was elected 
by a majority of one, in the Legislature, in default of election by 
the people. By how small a majority was Mr. Banks chosen 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. And yet how much of 
the efficiency of the present Congress in behalf of Constitutional 
freedom is due to the two or three votes that placed him in the 
Speaker's chair. The other day the vote to admit Kansas as a Free 
State under the Topeka Constitution, was lost hy one vote, after every 



24 

preliminary measure had been carried. Again, the motion to re- 
consider that fatal resolve was carried by two votes, and then the 
bill to recognize freedom in Kansas prevailed by only two votes. 
One single vote may infold within itself blessings or miseries that 
future generations alone can estimate. 

To apply this to the case in hand. The following is the appor- 
tionment of Presidential electors in the Free and Slave States re- 
spectively : 

FIFTEEN SLAVE STATES. 



SIXTEEN FREE STATES. 

Maine 8 

New Hampshire 5 

Vermont H 

Massacliusetts 13 

Rhode Island 4 

Connecticut 6 

New York 35 

New Jersey 7 

Pennsylvania 27 

Ohio '28 

Indiana 13 

Illinois 11 

Michigan 6 

"Wisconsin .5 

Californin 4 



Total 17(5 

Grand Total 290 



Delaware 3 

Mai'yland 8 

Virginia 15 

North Carolina 10 

South Carolina 8 

Georgia 10 

Florida 3 

Alabama 9 

Mississirpi 7 

Louisiana 6 

Texas 4 

Tennessee 12 

Kentucky 12 

Missouri 9 

Arkansas 4 



Tot.iI 120 

Necessary to choice 149 

The South must be taken as a unit for the e.xtension of slavery. 
The addition of Pennsylvania to the Southern vote would swell that 
vote to 147, lacking only two of a majority. Therefore every other 
Free State must be carried by the friends of freedom, if Pennsyl- 
vania shall join her strength to the sale oligarchy. The vote of any 
one State in the other direction, would, in that case, turn the scale 
in favor of sectional despotism against Constitutional freedom. 

A plurality of votes in any of the Free States, carries the ivkole 
number of Electors for that State. One vote may therefore determine 
the choice of any one State, and that State may turn the scale of the 
Union. Yet thousands neglect going to the polls because they have 
only one vote. At the Presidential election of 1852, in New Jerse}', 
of 119,557 adult males, only 83,211 voted. Where were the 
36,000 ? Evidently thousands and tens of thousands who are en- 
titled to vote, do not vote at all. These are probably quiet, retiring 
citizens, who, if they should vote at all, would be likely to vote on 
the right side. 

Are you, reader, of this number ? Look, we pray you, at what 
God now requires of you as a citizen. You can see that the Em- 
peror Alexander, as the ruler of 62,000,000 of people, and the 
proprietor of 23,000,000 of serfs, whose destinies he can control by 
a word, has a direct and fearful responsibility to God for the use of 
that power. But unless the whole theory of popular sovereignt)' is 
a sham, the power deposited in your hands as a voter may determine 
interests as momentous as lie within the will of the Emperor of Rus- 
sia. Your vote may decide whether this fair land shall be filled 
with the fruits of Christian civilization or with the bitter and deadly 
fruits of slavery. Who can be indifferent to such a responsibility ? 



mS.'' °'' CONGRESS 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011898 5412 * 



